2 Jan 2007

Day 2 Wilkes Station: Project igloo

The term igloo, or iglu, is derived from the Eskimo word 'igdlu' meaning ‘house’.

How often do you get the chance to build an igloo in Antarctica?

After really enjoying my night out in a bivvy bag at Watt’s hut, I was keen to try out another form of shelter. The indigenous people of the Arctic once lived in igloos made of snow, and I was eager to experience both the process of building and staying in one for myself. Marie thought the process of building an igloo would make a great SCOPE episode. I thought it would be fun to have an igloo activity in the May/JuneScientriffic so I set up my camera and tripod to record our progress.

An experienced Inuit can build a snow igloo in between one and two hours. Ours took five hours, with some interruptions...